


by these still waters

by nickofhearts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 10:59:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10989549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Gentiana grows fonder of the Chosen King than she means to.





	by these still waters

**Author's Note:**

> I am on a quest to ship Noct with e v e r y o n e.

Noct was _angry_ , at Cor for his business as usual attitude even in the face of everything that had happened, at _Insomnia falling_ , at his father's _murder._ He knew it was just Cor's way, that he had been closer to Noct's father than perhaps even Noct himself, but it made him _so angry_. He was most of all angry at his father, for _not telling him_ what was to come, sending Noct out with his friends as cavalierly as if it were any other day, knowing himself the fate about to befall him.

Noct kicked a stone viciously out of his way as he strode away from the others, looking up only when a gentle breeze ruffled his hair. "Gentiana."

Her lips curved in a slight smile. "Your path is not an simple one to walk, O King of the Stone, but you need not walk it alone."

Noct felt himself actually smiling back, a strange sort of peace settling over him now, with the knowledge that she was watching over him. The blazing anger of just a few minutes past seemed somewhat silly in retrospect, when everyone was counting on him to be strong for the future. "Thanks."

-

The first time she appeared in one of Prompto's pictures, everyone had been shocked. They hadn't seen her at the time, and only Noct knew of her promise. She _was_ watching over him, even when he wasn't aware of her presence.

That night, he went to sleep smiling, unsure whether he was imagining the soft fingers that brushed hair out of his face.

-

After Titan, it felt as if all the old wounds came reopened, every insecurity Noct had ever had about his responsibilities as the prince rising to the fore, and then some. He'd almost gotten all of them _killed_ in this mad quest, what was to say he wouldn't the next day?

"I can't _do_ this," Noct screamed, slamming his fists into the airship's metal wall.

Gentiana appeared by his side, and this time she didn't keep herself apart, her arms coming to wrap around Noct's chest as she leaned into his back. "You are doing all that you can, Chosen King. It will be enough."

Noct hesitantly put one of his hands over hers, clasping her fingers more surely when she didn't pull back or fade away. "Stay with me awhile?"

Gentiana made no reply, but neither did she leave him, holding him within the circle of her arms until Noct was ready to face the world once more.

-

It seemed now that she'd broken her distance, they were both loathe to give up the contact. Gentiana still kept herself out of the sight of the others, but Noct felt her against his side when he sat at the fire over dinner, her hand lingering in his during quiet moments. He wondered if this was taboo for a messenger of the gods, but he didn't dare ask lest she stop.

"Thank you," he whispered to the wind when he felt her near.

Gentiana remained unseen and unheard, but Noct knew he wasn't imagining the soft touch of lips against his cheek, a gift unasked for and the more precious for it.

-

It all came to a head at Altissia.

"Is it not _enough_ that I have bequeathed to you the Oracle?" Ardyn snarled, his face a twisting mask of anger that were like shadows flickering over his countenance, emotion that Noct had never known was possible from the Chancellor that had always been so composed. "Must you seek to claim _all_ things within this world?"

Noct didn't understand until Gentiana appeared solidly beside him.

"Ardyn—" she spoke in her lilting voice. "The past remains only in the past."

"I have nothing _but_ the past," Ardyn swore at her.

Noct cried out when Ardyn stabbed Luna with his knife, trying to run to her, to do _anything_ , but Gentiana held him back, keeping herself between him and Ardyn.

"It is as it must be," she said, though Noct knew her well enough by this point to hear the unspoken sorrow in her words.

-

Noct stumbled through the train, the vision of Prompto falling off the roof, pushed by _his_ hands still playing on a loop in his mind. He kept making mistake after mistake, hurting everyone around him. "Why can't I do anything _right?_ " he asked Gentiana when she appeared before him.

"Fate is unkind to those it takes in hand," she spoke, and then she kissed him.

Noct gasped, disbelieving, but Gentiana didn't pull away this time, nor hide herself from him. She kissed him like she needed it just as much, this moment theirs alone, untouched by all the cruelties of the world.

Her bare skin was cold to the touch, but her mouth was warm, her hips solid beneath his hands.

"Can I—" Noct wondered, smoothing fingers over the satin folds of her kimono.

"You need not ask for favours that would be freely given," Gentiana told him, and the fabric vanished beneath his touch, the remainder of her perfectly unblemished skin laid bare to his eyes.

Noct took this gift not for granted, moving to kiss the hollow of her neck, the dip of her collarbones, and more, awed at what he was being allowed.

Gentiana's laughter was like bells chiming on the wind.

She wrapped her long legs around his waist, her momentum carrying him back into one of the train's seats, and he noted that her eyes were a deep verdant green as she helped him free of his pants and slid herself down upon him, the sweetest moan that Noct had never heard issuing from her throat.

" _Noctis,_ " she said, squeezing her legs around him, and his breath caught at being thusly named.

He came within her, appalled at his own blasphemy, but Gentiana didn't seem to mind. She drew him into kiss after kiss, pulling his hand to her and moving his fingers where she wanted them—Noct would have given all he had to oblige whatsoever she wished of him. Her cry was a song in the night, the whole world turned white and glowing by her pleasure, and when the light faded away, he saw her revealed in her true form.

" _The Glacian,_ " Noct breathed in awe.

"My covenant is yours," Shiva told him, and pressed one last icy kiss to his lips.


End file.
